As Ford Authority reported last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drafted a new rule that would rescind a declaration made back in 2009 commonly referred to as the “endangerment finding,” which officially declared greenhouse gasses as a danger to human life. The kicker here is that this rule enables the EPA to place limits on the pollutants emitted by vehicles, along with other sources such as power plants, so if it goes away, such a move would remove tailpipe emissions standards for automakers. Now, it’s one step closer to becoming a reality.
Today, the EPA announced that it has released its proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which it says has led to $1 trillion in unnecessary regulations. If finalized, the proposal would remove all greenhouse gas standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles and heavy-duty engines, starting with EPA’s first greenhouse gas rule set in 2010 for light-duty vehicles and in 2011 for medium-duty vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles and engines – which includes off-cycle credits like automatic engine start-stop.
“With this proposal, the EPA is proposing to end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year. We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide which the Finding never assessed independently, was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods. If finalized, rescinding the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations would end $1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American businesses and families.”
As Ford Authority previously reported, part of the new spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump eliminates the requirement for automakers to pay fines for not meeting increasingly-stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards dating back to the 2022 model year as well. That same bill will nix the EV tax credit by the end of this September, which is expected to spur an increase in consumers looking to take advantage before it goes away.
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The five most abundant greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, listed in decreasing order of average global mole fraction, are: water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone.
Water Vapor accounts for 60-67% of Greenhouse Gas, and C02 only accounts for 24-26%.
Source: Wikipedia
I never understood why there was such a push from Governments on reduction C02 when water vapor is three times more prevalent. I especially didn’t understand why Hydrogen fuel was seen as a greenhouse gas solution, since the exhaust is primarily water vapor.
What kind of brain rot is this? Human activity is not increasing water vapor, beyond the fact that warmer air can hold more water vapor!
Actually Human activity does increase both Water Vapor and CO2; by breathing. Perhaps the government could have decreased the number of humans instead!
BTW: My point was that it is absurd to regulate any greenhouse gas.
This will have no effect on how automakers plan for the future. The next administration will immediately revert back to today’s or tighter standards, so relaxing today’s standards would be a ridiculous waste of time
What if the next admin is Republican 🤔?
The whiner is over here too I see.
I’m flattered that you are cyberstalking me from site to site, but you really need to get a life. Isn’t there some woke website you can go on for a while?
I’m flattered that you “welcomed me back”.
I hope this means we will see more diesel engines 🙂